An advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) node may be associated with a device for metering a consumable resource, such as electricity, natural gas or water. Such nodes may be organized as an autonomous routing area (ARA), having a tree structure that may be headed by a root node and/or router node. Within each node, a number of sensors, meters or other devices may provide data to a processing unit, memory and/or an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Application(s) operating on the node may process data received as input, and relay it up the network.
Such data, and the executable code that forms the application(s), may be valuable. For example, data may represent consumption quantities of electricity, natural gas or other utility, and integrity of the data may be important for financial reasons. Additionally, the executable code may include propriety technology. Unfortunately, the nodes in an ARA may be vulnerable to tampering, and the data may be vulnerable to unauthorized viewing or copying. Additionally, the executable code of the application(s) (e.g., program statements) may be vulnerable to copying, decompiling and reverse engineering, which can reveal information on the operation and functionality of individual nodes and/or the entire network.